10 Movies That Could Have Been Truly Awesome (With A Single Change)

10. Dawn Of The Dead (2004)

George Romero has always been more than a horror director. Like Roger Corman and James Whale, Romero makes smart, principled, scary movies. His films are ingrained with a social conscience that few genre filmmakers attempt to convey. If his best film, 1979's Dawn of the Dead, had been nothing more than a silly gorefest, it wouldn't have been as relevant as it is today. Romero saw a deep-seated psychological flaw in Americans' worship of money and stuff, and wasn't afraid to point it out. That he did so with gallons of gaudy, bright-red stage blood makes his film that much more of a classic.

Zack Snyder's remake is a stylish, fast-paced, counterpoint to Romero's original. It's also incredibly tedious, with too many characters and an episodic, attention-challenged storyline. Overenthusiastic horror fans had always wondered what a big budget, Hollywood zombie movie would be like. Snyder answered that question with all the flair of a music video director, and none of the intelligence of Romero.

The film has a few redeeming qualities, such as good casting, but it doesn't date as well as Romero's for one reason: it lacks a point of view. Romero allows the malaise of living in a mall to set in before his characters are besieged by zombies and bikers. Snyder seems to think that living in a mall would be super-cool. Maybe he never had to work in one.